Alexander Volkov does not see the UFC White House co-main event as a legitimate championship matchup.
All eyes will be on the heavyweight division just over a month after Volkov makes his return to action this Saturday at UFC 328.
After the Russian looks to make it back-to-back wins, the division will crown an interim titleholder when Alex Pereira battles Ciryl Gane at the White House on June 14.
The pair will be vying for the temporary belt in Tom Aspinall’s injury absence, but ‘Drago’ will not be recognizing the winner as a legitimate champion.
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Alexander Volkov says Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane is ‘just marketing’
Many believe Volkov was robbed by the judges against Gane when they fought at UFC 310 in December 2024. Even Dana White acknowledged the scoring error, but that has not prevented the Frenchman from being given another title opportunity.
While the Russian had to fight Jailton Almeida last year, Gane challenged Aspinall. Despite his pokes resulting in a no contest and sending the champ to double eye surgery, ‘Bon Gamin’ remains in the picture.
And he is not the only one whose place in the upcoming title fight Volkov thinks needs questioning. He also recently criticized the decision to grant Pereira an immediate heavyweight shot.
“It doesn’t matter who wins… UFC won with this fight,” Volkov told MMA Fighting. “And it will be for sure not like a boring fight, but it’s not true title fight. It’s more like a promotional or media fight.
“Alex Pereira…he just lost to the guy (Magomed Ankalaev), then he beats him with just broken rib, and now he want to go one category up, where he never fought, and they give him title shot? Like, in logic, it doesn’t have any sense.
“It’s just marketing,” he continued. “It’s nothing more about how many followers and how many fans he have. Maybe it’s good for UFC, maybe more people will watching this fight, maybe this they will do this White House card more loud, but it’s nothing about like a real champ.”
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
As for his own situation, ‘Drago’ is confused.
“Honestly, I don’t understand at all policy in the UFC about me because sometimes I hear different things about my future in UFC,” Volkov said.
After beating…
2026-05-06 14:00:00
